__________________
"Between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the sons of Arius. There was an age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world. Hither came Conan, the cimmarian, sword in hand. It is I, his chronicler who knows well his saga. Now let me tell you of the days of high adventure!"

"Unleash the Casey!"

"Make no mistake, should you choose to test my resolve in this matter, you will be looking at an outcome that will have a finality, that is beyound your comprehension. And you will not counting the days or the months or the years, but milleniums in a place with no doors!"

No AI settings, do everything manually, including moving my puppets. One thing annoys me: in "not move freely" stance my puppets do not chase their targets, so if one of mine shield bashes someone out of range, they don't keep attacking. I'm getting used to switching "move freely/not move freely" quickly (mapped it to V and use ESDF for movement and keys around it for inventory etc.), and this together with "aggressive" behaviour for my tanks will work well. Ranged characters attack whenever they can it seems.

I'm really enjoying the Hold Postion/Move Freely command on one of the quick buttons as well. Luring foes into carefully positioned ambushes is my new favorite sport.

Aye, and with Survival, you can actually passively "scan" for enemies and reveal their locations/type before even opening the door to the next room. What happens next is that my Ranger uses her expendable pet to open the door, bark at the enemies, and lead them into a gauntlet of Frost/Shock/Acidic Grease/Sharpnel/Claw/etc... Traps; and should by some miracle of the Maker a survivor actually makes it into the room where the rest of the party is chilling out, he/she will probably be on the verge of death already and it merely takes a plink of an arrow to finish him/her off.

It's beautiful to hear their screams.

Good times, good times...

~~~~ ~~~~

The Ranger pets are quite possibly, one of the best things in this game because they help to break up the enemy's "Focus Fire". Having a pet distract a Mage or force Archers into melee does a tremendous deal in reducing the potency of an enemy attack. The best part being, with three pets, by the time the 3rd pet dies, the cooldown on the first one should have expired by then, and it is extremely rare to cycle through more than 2 pets in a single fight, save maybe against Dragons.

Ranger pets also helps in fights where you have control beforehand, since the enemy will always have initial aggro on the first thing to appear in their sight. It's not a big deal if the pet dies, and trust me, if you're using the Great Bear, it doesn't die easily (even on Nightmare); but it can be a game-ender if your tank dies.

Especially beautiful in fights against Revenants, since you get a free meatshield while your party switches to ranged weapons. It saves a lot on potions.

My Ranger is currently in a party with Leliana, which means I have TWO Rangers, with two pets. Which basically means I have a party of 6.

Spirit Mages also have Reanimate Dead, but I chose to skip Mages in this runthrough because they make the game WAAAAY too easy, like Sorcerers in BG2. Thinking of a future runthrough where I will have 3 Rogues( +Zevran). The thought of 3 Great Bears smacking Arl Howe silly is amusing. I might make the 4th member a Spirit Mage specialised in support only, so that I can have a party of EIGHT units.

The only annoying thing is that you need to set their tactics manually each time they're summoned. It doesn't get saved, and you have set it up again, or they won't use their special skills properly, especially the Spider's Web ability.

__________________
"Between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the sons of Arius. There was an age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world. Hither came Conan, the cimmarian, sword in hand. It is I, his chronicler who knows well his saga. Now let me tell you of the days of high adventure!"

"Unleash the Casey!"

"Make no mistake, should you choose to test my resolve in this matter, you will be looking at an outcome that will have a finality, that is beyound your comprehension. And you will not counting the days or the months or the years, but milleniums in a place with no doors!"

With speciliazations, when you unlock it, it unlocks forever more. Any character can choose it, providing they are of the right class, including NPC's. So yes. Buy a ranger manual, and both Zevran and Lelliana (plus the PC) can become one.